Day: January 8, 2016

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Saturday, 9 January 2016 : Saturday after the Epiphany (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

John 3 : 22-30

At that time, Jesus went into the territory of Judea with His disciples. He stayed there with them and baptised. John was also baptising in Aenon, near Salim, where water was plentiful; people came to him and were baptised. This happened before John was put in prison.

Now John’s disciples had been questioned by a Jew about spiritual cleansing, so they came to John and said, “Rabbi, the One Who was with you across the Jordan, and about Whom you spoke favourably, is now baptising, and all are going to him.”

John answered, “No one can receive anything, except what has been given to Him from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.’ Only the bridegroom has the bride; but the friend of the bridegroom stands by and listens, and rejoices to hear the bridegroom’s voice.”

“My joy is now full. It is necessary that He increase but that I decrease.”

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Saturday, 9 January 2016 : Saturday after the Epiphany (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : White

Psalm 149 : 1-2, 3-4, 5-6a and 9b

Alleluia! Sing to the Lord a new song, sing His praise in the assembly of His saints. Let Israel rejoice in his Maker, let the people of Zion glory in their King!

Let them dance in praise of His Name and make music for Him with harp and timbrel. For the Lord delights in His people; He crowns the lowly with victory.

The saints will exult in triumph; even at night on their couches. Let the praise of God be on their lips. This is the glory of all His saints. Alleluia!

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Saturday, 9 January 2016 : Saturday after the Epiphany (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : White

1 John 5 : 14-21

Through Him we are fully confident that whatever we ask, according to His will, He will grant us. If we know that He hears us whenever we ask, we know that we already have what we asked of Him.

If you see your brother committing sin, a sin which does not lead to death, pray for him, and God will give life to your brother. I speak, of course, of the sin which does not lead to death. There is also a sin that leads to death; I do not speak of praying about this. Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, but not all sin leads to death.

We know that those born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them and the evil one does not touch them. We know that we belong to God, while the whole world lies in evil. We know that the Son of God has come and has given us power to know the truth. We are in Him Who is true, His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

My dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

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Friday, 8 January 2016 : Friday after the Epiphany (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard about the Lord Who came into this world, proclaiming and bringing God’s salvation, mercy and healing upon all of us mankind, all of whom were sickened in our hearts, filled and tainted with the darkness of our own faults and disobediences, with our own sins and unworthiness before the Lord.

In the Gospel we heard how the Lord Jesus helped a leper who was suffering from his leprosy, the pain, the suffering, the shame and the stigma that came with it, and how Jesus brought him to fullness of healing and redemption, and his leprosy was healed when the Lord touched him, purging from him the imperfection and the filth of the physical leprosy of the flesh.

But Jesus did not desire for the man to trumpet out loud what He had done for him. In our human nature, it would be natural for us all to show off what we have been successful in, and boast of our achievements, but this was not what the Lord Jesus had done. This is because whatever He had done for mankind’s sake, His people and beloved children, He had done them for their sake entirely, and never for His own glory.

And yet, whatever He had done, out of His infinite and everlasting love for us all, He had been glorified through His actions, as we heard in the first reading today, by the testimony of the water, the blood and the Spirit, all of which acted in unison in proclaiming the love, the everlasting and great love that God had shown us all and manifested itself through Jesus Christ our Lord.

When Jesus was baptised at the Jordan, as He was immersed in the water by John the Baptist, the heaven was opened, and there came a great voice from Heaven, proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, and a dove, which represents the Holy Spirit, came to dwell on Jesus, the testimony of the truth which both the water and the Spirit agreed on, that Christ our Lord is the One Who had come into the world in order to save us.

And what is the testimony of Blood? It is the testimony of the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ Who had shed His blood and pour it all upon us as He lay dying and suffering on the cross. Had it been any other blood, animal’s blood or human blood besides that of Christ’s, it would have been useless and meaningless. But because our Lord Himself had shed His own Precious Blood, the blood which is worthy and capable of absolving all of us from our sins, then that was why, we have a new hope of salvation.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, let us all realise what great friend and help we have had in Jesus our Lord. It was because of Him that the love of God had reached out to all of us, and through Him we have this hope and promise of eternal life and salvation from all of our predicaments. We have once been condemned to a fate of eternal death and suffering because of our sins and disobedience, but the Lord Who loves us all, wanted another fate for us.

Have we therefore given Him thanks and gratitude for all that He has done for us? We have passed through Christmas and all of its joyful celebrations, where we revel and be happy knowing that our Lord Who had come into the world, had also blessed us with His presence and dwelling here among us, so that through Him, we may all be saved. And we see how the Lord had sacrificed Himself for our sake, which we will celebrate in the upcoming weeks as we proceed into the season of Lent and then into the Holy Week and Easter.

Let us all therefore commit ourselves anew to the Lord, and let us all strengthen our faith in Him, so that in all things that we say and do, we may always bring glory to Him and also that we may remain always in His grace and love, that we will never be separated again from His love. God bless us all. Amen.